The spread of colonial settlement from Sydney Harbour to the western plains occurred quite rapidly within the first 15 years of European arrival in Australia.

[1] A period of drought between 1814 and 1816 resulted in the escalation of violence between settlers and local Aboriginal people, particularly along the Hawkesbury and Nepean Rivers.

When the local Aboriginal people found their traditional food resources gone, they utilised the settlers crops and animals that had replaced them.

The land also included sites such as "Iron Bark Range" which was a high campsite well above the flooding of eastern creek and a source of silcrete.

Maria, a student at the Parramatta Native Institution from 1815, married Robert Locke, a convict from Norfolk, England, in 1824.

[1] In the late 1970s Lots 1 and 2 of Maria Locke's subdivision were purchased by the NSW Planning and Environment Commission, and in 1980 by the Commissioner for Main Roads.

[1] The land grant retains much of its original natural setting and character, with remnant vegetation surviving along Bells Creek and across the eastern side of the property.

The site has undergone some clearing and modification associated with the construction of houses and other buildings along the Richmond Road frontage; some sections of Bells Creek appear to have been modified to facilitate water flow.

[1] The subject site encompasses four of the nine lot attributed to Maria Locke's subdivision of the Colebee and Williams land grants dated 1884.

The registered area is outside the original land grant however, according to Navin Officer Heritage Consultants it is likely that the PAD extends along the length of Bells Creek .

[1] The Colebee/Nurragingy Land Grant is a site of state heritage significance because of its combination of historical, social and cultural values.

For Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people the Colebee/Nurragingy Land Grant is an important landmark in the history of black and white relations in Australia.

As a part of the Black Town it is also associated with the Aboriginal people who formed a community around this area, which has persisted to the present day.

[1] Both Colebee and Nurragingy feature within the early colonial history of western Sydney, participating in Macquarie's punitive expeditions and being the first Aboriginal people to be granted land.

This settlement became a centre for Aboriginal life in the early colonial period and thus influenced the siting of the nearby Blacktown Native Institution.

The land grant reflects Governor and Mrs Macquarie's concern for the Indigenous inhabitants of the colony and their philanthropic objectives, featuring the beliefs that Aboriginal people should be segregated from the corrupting influence of European society.

The site has the potential to contain archaeological relics and deposits that could provide information (that may not be available from other sources) about the nature, extend and experience of Aboriginal occupation of the land grant during the early contact period.

Archaeological remains could contribute to a better understanding of the spatial occupation and use of the land grant by Colebee, Nurragingy and their families, as well as others who may have occupied the site during the period.

Potential archaeological remains associated with the Colebee and Nurragingy land grant may include historically documented domestic features, including a bark and log hut with a chimney, as well as associated rural features and structures (e.g. gardens, fencing, sheds, animal enclosures and evidence of former vegetable patches and crops).